Nancy Pelosi is retiring as Democratic House leader. She stuck to her pledge she made in 2018 to serve no more than two additional two-year terms as Democratic Leader and House Speaker. If selected by the Democratic House Caucus, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) will become the first black Democratic Caucus leader. At 52, he’s a generation younger than Pelosi.

There have been a lot of questions about Nancy Pelosi’s leadership since her husband, Paul Pelosi, was brutally attacked with a hammer in their San Francisco home on 28 October, a little more than a week before the November mid-term elections. Paul Pelosi was in hospital until 3 November, where he underwent surgery for a fractured skull. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi wants to head home for a while to be with her husband. I can only imagine the shock and horror she must have felt on hearing about his attack. It was only made worse by the cruel jokes and conspiracy theories made by the Republicans in the House and Senate, as well as the right wing media machine.

Nancy Pelosi has accomplished a tremendous amount that is positive for this country. I know she’s going to stay in the House representing San Francisco for the next term, but I suspect she’ll fully retire in 2024.

I didn’t invent the phrase “Republicans in ruins,” I heard it (or read about it) since the Tuesday midterms. Today the Republicans finally took control of the House after a long and drawn out vote count that gave the Republicans the final 218th seat to claim control. The problem with a Republican party in ruins is that they don’t care to govern at all, if they ever did over the last 20 or so years since the Republican party became infected with the Tea Partiers. The Republican party’s base is the Tea Party, which is why Magaga was able to take over the way it did. No matter what Republican leadership says about leaving Trump, it’s lip service only. The Republicans now control the House, and Trump controls those Republicans in particular. It’s going to be very interesting come January 2023.